Los Angeles / give me Norfolk, Virginia / dial one oh four ten oh nine / tell the folks back home th...
Los Angeles / give me Norfolk, Virginia / dial one oh four ten oh nine / tell the folks back home this is the promised land calling / and the poor boy is on / the line
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Buddy Holly seems to me rather overlooked nowadays, though he was a major figure in the early rock and roll years. He died in the plane crash on 3rd February 1959 that also took the life of The Big Bopper and Richie Valens. Whilst his peers Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis were ripping it up, Holly (real name Charles Hardin Holly) with his NHS style glasses and quieter, more contemplative songs, came across as the shy sensitive boy-next-door type, and did the girls lap it up.
Holly was from the Texas city of Lubbock, a deeply conservative part of 1950's United States where blacks, jews and gays were villified. Remember that in those days you could be a big star in your own part of the USA but unheard of anywhere else. Radio played a crucial role in breaking new sounds and artists and it was an appearance broadcast by the local KVND station that enabled Holly and his backing band The Crickets to get a record deal with Coral.
From 1956-1958 Buddy Holly & The Crickets had a number of hits. His musical style was hard to pin down for the time. Too soft to be pure rock and roll, but too heavy for country. The title "Tex-Mex" came to sum it up both as a nod to his home state and to some of the outside influences he would have picked up in his formative years. His legacy to popular music remains, not just for the music he made whilst alive but as an influence on many of the up-and-coming acts of the early 1960's.
Maybe it's time for a reappraisal because although his UK label MCA brought out several Best Of albums during the rock and roll revival years of 1973-74 you don't see too many of his works on sale these days. Apart from this CD of course.
Although this CD doesn't have my all-time favourite Buddy Holly song "Listen To Me" (the one with a beautiful shimmering guitar backing) it does have 12 exceptional tracks.
Younger listeners brought up in this age where multilayered production and bottom-end engineering in the studio can cover up a multitude of a band's sins will hear these spare, simple recordings and laugh. For me their very simplicity is endearing. Take the song Everyday, which consists of a little percussion, some chimes and Holly hiccoughing the lyrics. So simple a school band could do it. Think It Over, with its "ba ba ba" backing and charming lyrics "think it over what you just said, think it over in your pretty little head, are you sure I am not the one, is this love real or only fun?"
The one song that does have something approaching a sophisticated production is the single recorded after he had split from the Crickets and a No 1 after his death, It Doesn't Matter Anymore, with its plucked strings and lush orchestral backing. Other than that hit's simple up and down the scales stuff that still sounds fresh yet pleasant to hear again nearly 50 years later. A perfect example is the ridiculously yet intelligently sparse use of spaced notes in Early In The Morning, little more than a shuffle but the sum is so much greater than the parts.
Track listing : Raining In My Heart / Early In The Morning / Peggy Sue / Maybe Baby / Everyday / Rave On / That'll Be The Day / Heartbeat / Think It Over / Oh Boy / It's So Easy / It Doesn't Matter Anymore
Avaliable for around a fiver and that has got to be worth every penny. I feel very sad writing this; he really was a special talent.
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great review i remember my dad playing buddy holly songs when we were kids. sue
jonathanb 19.06.2006 15:23
I think it's remarkable that his songs and influence are still around now, nearly 50 years after he died. Even more so considering he was only in his early 20s at the time.
danthepianoman 29.04.2006 10:06
I'm actually just listening to the live album from the show about his life stort as I am writing this! My dad has got this album but on the original LP! Nice stuff, Dan.
Apr 8th, 2006
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